The company was founded completely by chance. Šos originally planned to develop custom software when someone approached him with a DMS (Document Management System). "He showed it to me in about two or three minutes and asked, 'Could you do this? ' And I said yes," recalls the founder. However, the decision to focus on documents did not come from him. "It was the customers who decided. It was customer demand for documents that completely overwhelmed our other activities," explains Šos. "At a certain point, we said enough is enough and decided to focus on one thing properly—we wanted to have one product that we would devote ourselves to 100 percent."
Democratization of technology
At the beginning of the millennium, there were only solutions on the market for large multinational companies with budgets in the millions. "We came up with the idea of extending a similar solution to smaller companies—offering something simpler, appropriate to their size and price," says Šos, describing the original vision. Miroslav Dašek from Asseco Solutions confirms the dramatic change: "Ten years ago, we would visit a customer and quote them a price for, say, a used car, whereas today, thanks to standardization, we can quote them the price of a cup of coffee a day—it's a huge difference."
Partnership as the key to success
A small company with five employees had to find a way to compete with the big players. "We knew we had no chance of competing with large companies in tenders, so we approached partners and started visiting them with a partnership proposal," explains Šos. The collaboration with Asseco Solutions came about naturally. One of the customers for whom Socos IT was developing modules for Helios Green was looking for a document management solution. "We implemented DOCU-X there, integrated it with Helios, and based on that, we went to Asseco with a functional integration," he describes the beginning of the partnership in 2014–2015.
The moment of realizing success
When asked when he realized he had a real business, Šos replies thoughtfully: "There was never a moment when you could say, 'Now it's good, nothing else will happen.'" However, the turning point came when he approached partners such as Asseco, Autocont, and Konica Minolta. "When they showed interest in DOCU-X and really liked it, it was incredibly energizing—a moment of euphoria. That was the turning point when it was no longer just for a few customers, but really went global."
A revolution in the approach to digitization
According to Šos, companies' approach to digitization has changed fundamentally over the past 10 years. "The biggest difference was that the solution spread to smaller customers and small businesses. SaaS solutions, one-time applications that can be deployed very quickly, are widely available." Today, Socos IT offers "smaller customers ready-made solutions and packages, but still with the option for customers to switch to the full DOCU-X with customization options at any time."
Speed as the new standard
The speed of deployment has accelerated dramatically. "A large project can still take 2-4 months, but with a pre-prepared solution, it's a matter of days," Šos compares. "The customer comes in, we launch it on the cloud or deploy the solution, and it can be a matter of days." Dašek adds practical context: "Previously, a project required dozens of hours of analysis, intensive customer involvement, and configuration. Today, we are able to deliver a standard solution within a matter of days."
Šos gives a specific example of savings: "There was a customer who had a large number of documents and was able to save over CZK 200,000 a year with an acceleration of 75-80 percent." The savings are even more significant for accounting consulting firms. "This can amount to savings of three-quarters of a person in the accounting department, or in most cases, there is no need to increase capacity."
